Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	french_a	great_a	king_n	16,597	5	4.3459	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61799	A consultation about religion, or, What religion is best to be chosen with an appendix upon this question, whether every one may be saved in his own religion / translated out of Latin in which it was written by an eminent professor of divinity.	Lechmere, Edmund, d. 1640?	1693 (1693)	Wing S5928A; ESTC R27505	93,395	238

A Consultation ABOUT RELIGION OR What RELIGION is best to be Chosen WITH AN APPENDIX UPON THIS QUESTION Whether every one may be Saved in his own Religion Translated out of Latin in which it was Written by an Eminent Professor of Divinity LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCIII THE PREFACE THE following Treatise was written in Latin by an Eminent Professor of Divinity at the time when the Divisions of those who were fallen off from the Catholic Communion seemed to separate them from one another at as great a Distance as they were from her who had been their common Parent It was immediately Translated into several Languages as French Dutch and English and met with a very considerable Success in these four great Districts of the Anti-Catholic Party viz. Germany Holland France and England The Edition that was in our Language being by length of time spent and gone and those few which may be left appearing somewhat out of Fashion and so less agreeable to this present Age it hath been thought worth the pains to Translate it a new and to Publish it as it is here supposing it may be no less proper and useful now when the Divisions of the foresaid four great Parties are much more Dilated and Multiplied then they were then and the Minds of Men far more unsettled and busie in seeking where to fix as to that Great Concern of Mankind the true Religion Indeed since the greatest part of Mankind are Born and Bred up in Darkness and in the Shadow of Death it should seem that the Divine Goodness could not have found out or bestowed a more seasonable or more necessary Blessing upon them then in providing a means whereby they might be drawn out of such a miserable state by enlightning their minds with the Knowledge of this true Religion But it has pleased the same Divine Goodness to temper so great a Mercy with an inscrutable mixture of Justice in permitting that this true Religion should not be so Visible and Evident to all Enquirers but that there is still great Danger of Mistaking and Miscarrying in the Search This cannot but Cause great unquietness to all serious Enquirers within themselves and no less Trouble and Contest among the several Pretenders to it in the World and hereby that which was designed by Almighty God to be the greatst Consolation of Mens Minds in this Life and the only Ground of Hope for the Life to come is become the occasion of the greaest Disturbances in the one and of endless Miseries in the other Nevertheless to the Glory of God's Grace be it spoken and to the Honour of the True Religion these difficulties and obscurities are not so many nor so great but that they may be pierced and broken through by the truly Humble Serious and Sincere Enquirer They are indeed impenetrable and an occasion of stumbling to the Passionate and to the Prejudic'd to the Proud and Self-Conceited But this is not the fault of Religion nor of the means provided but of such Persons and it is no more then what happens every day in things of which there is no dispute and where the Truth and the Right are Discernable and Unquestionable at first Sight For if the Mind of Man be taken up before-hand with any of these Preventions no Light or Evidence of any Truth though never so certain can make way for its Reception as we see in the great and known Sins which habitually reign in some Men in spite of all Conviction and in the frequent Preferences of Temporals before Eternals even amongst those who are more Docile and Obedient Such then being the Weakness and Corruption of Mans Heart that the least adhesion to any one Object renders it loose and indifferent to all others the while it should seem that those whose Office and Profession it is to reduce such as are in Error to the Knowledge and Love of Truth should not labour s● much or so soon to Convince their Understandings as to Dispose their Wills or at least to endeavour the Preparation of the one Proportionably to the Cultivation of the other Since to do otherwise is but to sow good Seed in Thorny or Stony Ground contrary to the Rules and Practice of Natural and Spiritual Husbandry But what means will you say can be proposed Sufficient and Efficacious enough to work such Dispositions in Men so perversely affected Why truly since it is not Naturally in the Power of one Man to gain admission into the Will of another but by the way of the Understanding as also there is no means of attacking the Understanding but by the imagination and by the Senses It must be acknowledged that it is easier to discover then to remove these grand Impediments of finding out or embracing the Truth For all the ways and passages whereby the Truth should enter are stop'd and fill'd up with Notions and Fancies which though vain and weak in themselves yet by their near approach and fair appearance keep Truth and right Reason at such a distance that all their Efforts fall short and do no Execution However some preliminary Labour and Industry methinks might be used to remove such Rubbish and to clear the Passages from those Obstructions which forestal the Truth And in the first place it will not be hard to Convince even such Persons that all such Passions and Prejudices are at least in themselves mean and unworthy For the contrary Virtues are acknowledged and approved by all even by those who have the least share of them Secondly it is not hard to Convince the same Persons that they and all Men are Naturally very prone and subject to such Passions and that therefore they ought to be jealous and even inquisitive whether they be not actually prevented by them Thirdly They are thus far agreed already with the Truth that such Passions are its Enemies and that there is no holding Intelligence with it and them at the same time that they are the Causes and Promoters of all Error as they are also Fed and Cherished themselves by Error And Lastly that whosoever fails or falls short of attaining to the Knowledge of the Truth by the Fault of these Passions they will be so far from excusing that they will be the aggravation of his Sin and Misery In the next place it may not be fruitless to represent that the Vertues and Dispositions contrary to these Passions are so indispensable that never any one attained to the Truth without them It is the first Lesson in the School of Christ to seek and receive the Kingdom of Heaven as a little Child that is with a Meek Docile Humble Willing Mind To seek it in the first place as the only thing necessary and to be willing to part with all things for it The Truth can no more fail to enter into a Soul thus disposed then the Sun to reflect it self in a well Polish'd and Spotless Glass And such Dispositions as these are in themselves and

But it may be they will say they have no need of Miracles Whether it be a Miracle that they have so many Followers for 't is a Miracle great enough that in so short a time so many have embrac'd this new Gospel Perhaps this might be some pretence or argument if their new Religion were stricter and more mortifying to the Flesh than the Catholick Religion But since they have abolished all the Severities of the Catholick Religion and given all liberties to the flesh what wonder is it if so many follow it What wonder is it if heavy things by removing the impediments fall downwards and Rivers by taking away their dams run speedily to the Sea Our depraved and corrupt nature is very prone to a licentious life which it finds in these new Religions Therefore so many profess them not because they are convinc'd by force of Reason to believe that they are more holy but because they find in them that liberty which they covet and seek after and can now enjoy the same without any fear under pretext of an honest and pious Religion I add also that this Miracle may be as well brought by all these new Religions for many have flock'd not only to the Lutherans but to the Calvinists and Anabaptists c. therefore all should be holy and authorized of God But God cannot deny himself nor destroy what himself hath established and therefore cannot be the Author of so many contrary Religions which condemn one another The Fifth Reason from the Life and Manners of the First Reformers THE Fifth Reason Because these New Religions were introduced by Men of Evil Life and noted Infamy Pride Envy Malice and Detraction having not the least shew of an Apostolical Spirit in them For as to Luther's Life we know that he was a professed Friar and Priest about fifteen years and therefore strictly bound by a double Vow of Continency We know also that this Man forsaking his Monastery Habit and Profession returned to a Secular Life and seducing a professed Nun out of her Monastery married her and lived daily with her whereby in the opinion of the whole World he committed a double Sacrilege and that as many times as he used the act of Matrimony What way of living could be more scandalous We know that he was so addicted to Gluttonny and Lust as frequently in his Banquettings and Compotations he would say That the use of a Woman was more necessary than to eat drink Lib de Vit. Conjugal Serm. de Matri and sleep and that it was Lawful to use the Handmaid if the Wife refused the Debt or Right of Marriage Hierome Bolsecus Julius Brigerus and others describe Calvin's Life to be full of the worst of Crimes as false Witness or Perjury Murders Thefts bestial Impurities c. many other Authors write the same things which I never saw yet confuted But touching Luther's infamy it is apparent by the Fact aforesaid and notorious to the whole World when being a Religious Man professed and a Priest he presumed to Marry a professed Nun for this raises a scandal in the judgment of Divines for if in the Civil Law he is become infamous that is taken in Adultery how much more he that contracts a double sacrilegious Marriage For Spiritual Adultery committed against Christ is much more horrible and filthy than carnal Adultery of Husband or Wife And as to the infamy of Calvin It appears out of the Judicial Acts at Noyon Bol. in vit Cal. c. 5. Jul. Brig p. 59. that he was convicted and by Sentence condemned to be publickly burnt for Sodomy had not the punishment of Fire by the intercession of the Bishop been changed into the penalty of Whipping and stigmatizing his Back with an hot Iron Hence it is manifest both by Law and Fact he was infamous Concerning Luther's Pride and slander it is manifest First Because his whole Doctrine took its beginning from it For when certain Indulgences were to be published in Germany this Office was given to to the Dominicans which had often been granted before to the Augustine Friars whereof Luther was one This Luther took so extreamly in dudgeon and so disdainfully to Heart that first of all he began to disclaim against Indulgences and being reprehended for the same by degrees he alledged many and greater things against the Pope's Authority and other points of Faith and thereby raised great Commotions and Troubles in Germany as John Coclaeus a Spectator of all these things writes at large in the Acts of Luther Anno Dom. 1517. This Pride and Indignation is the very Fountain and Origin of all Luther's Doctrine without it Luther's Religion had not been nor many others of which this is the Parent Secondly Luther in his Epistle to the Citizens of Strasburg says He would willingly deny the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist on purpose to prejudice the Papacy were not the Scriptures so clear to the contrary And in another place he says thus If any Council should decree or permit the Sacrament to be received under both Kinds Lib. de form Missan then we would do neither but in despight of the Council and its Decree we would either receive under one or none and curse all those that should observe the Decree of a Council Here in contempt and spight of a Council he teaches to abstain from a thing necessary to Salvation when yet we may obey even a Tyrant if he commands things Lawful and oftentimes we are obliged to it From whence you may clearly see by what Spirit he was moved What can be compared to so great Fury and Madness Also in his Book against the King of England he writes That Kings Princes and Bishops are not worthy to unty his Shooes and that he will be taken for a Holy Man in spight of their Teeth In the same place he says That he cares not a Fig for a thousand Cyprians and a thousand Augustines also he calls Christian Princes Kings and Emperors Tyrants Block-heads Asses Fools Wild Beasts Hang-men Nitts Bubbles the Enemies of God most wicked Knaves and makes many scurrilous Songs on them Of Calvin's Pride and Detraction there is enough to be seen in Bolsecus although 't is sufficiently apparent in Calvin's own Writings for he despises therein all the ancient Fathers and impudently taxes them of Errors He calls the Scholastick Doctors Sophisters and frequently in his Sermons Lib. 2. Instit c. 14. s 3. l. 3. c. 4. s 38. c. 5. s 10. l. 4. c. 12. s 20. c. breaks forth into these expressions I am a Prophet I have the Spirit of God if I err it is you O God which leads me into Error and deceives me for the Sins of the People In his Letters and smaller Works also he publishes his own Praises Dignities and Merits in the Church under some counterfeited Name as Bolsecus and others tell us Many more things of this Nature I might instance as